Crowds feel compelled to visit Flight 93 memorial

September 13, 2003|By BOBBIE BLACK, DAILY AMERICAN, Home and Family Editor

In a day eerily similar to the blue skies and late summer sunshine of Sept. 11, 2001, a subdued crowd gathered to observe the second anniversary of the crash of Flight 93 on Thursday morning.

By the early morning hours, the crowd started to gather at the temporary Flight 93 memorial in Stonycreek Township.

"We were traveling to North Carolina, and we decided we wanted to stop off at the memorial site," said Marideen Holtrop of Michigan. "I have never seen the Pennsylvania site and I just felt I had to be here," she explained. She and her husband spent Wednesday evening in New Stanton, Fayette County, before traveling to the memorial overlooking the crash site.

Bedford County resident Margaret Fluke made her first pilgrimage to the Somerset County site so she could be a part of the service. "It is peaceful here. I called my daughter in Alabama so she could hear the bells tolling, but I couldn't pick it up," said the resident of Six Mile Run. Fluke also planned to go to the Flight 93 Memorial Chapel on the Stuzmantown Road before returning home.

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The only one of four hijacked planes that did not take a life on the ground, United Airlines Flight 93 was en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when it made a sudden turn near Cleveland.

People on board made calls from cellular phones, telling loved ones and others they planned to attack their hijackers once they learned of the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"We plan to make this an annual pilgrimage," said United flight attendant Kathy Klingaman, who traveled from Washington, D.C., to attend the somber service, held at the exact time the plane crashed two years ago.

Her companion, JoAnn Ferraro, also an United flight attendant, agreed. "We came up last year for the service and we were touched by the loving attitudes of the county residents. The families of those who died on Flight 93 felt it, too. Even though we did not know any of the people (who died on Flight 93) personally, we knew them all. They are heroes. We will never forget their courage and we want to come here to honor them every year," she added.

The group assisted in unfurling a large Flight 93 flag beside the memorial and held several minutes of silence to observe the second anniversary of the crash.

After a short prayer, the group sang several patriotic songs before folding the 10-foot-long flag back up to be unfolded every hour on the hour.

"We want to thank those who died on Flight 93 and remember them always for their courage," said Klingaman. "We will always remember this day that changed the course of history."